A very good example of a rare and early Dutch chart; only two copies appear in catalogue and auction records over the last 30 years. This is one of the few charts that was published within the period that the Dutch actually held sway in the lower Northeast; all are extremely rare. In fact, at least insofar as place name typography is concerned, the chart signifies a high water mark of Dutch dominion. The regional toponym, “NIEU NEDER LAND,” clearly dwarfs both New England and Virginia in size and area covered.
“Doncker’s charts were the most up-to-date in the second half of the 17th century. Although there is some similarity to those charts published by Van Loon, Goos, Lootsman, and Doncker, the latter’s charts are original” (Koeman). And although, as Burden points out, this chart was based on Arnold Colom’s of 1656, he refreshed this model with independent updatings, such the addition of Guilford, Connecticut. Dutch place names or highly Dutch-inflected English place names dominate throughout. The chart’s rugged, spare style and heavy paper indicate that its purpose was for actual use at sea, and its rarity on the current market supports this.
Hendrick Doncker (1625.26-1699) had a long and successful career, who as Koeman observed, “was able to develop one of the most popular sets of maritime works published in Amsterdam during the Golden Age.” In addition to atlases, he also issued navigational textbooks, pilot guides, and portolan charts, another indication of the intended practical application of the charts he sold. His house in the Nieuwe Brugsteeg section of Amsterdam stood opposite that of Johannes van Keulen of the great maritime publishing family. After Doncker’s death, much of his stock was in fact purchased by the van Keulen firm and presumably re-published in some form, testifying to the quality of Doncker’s work. This chart appeared in De Zee-Atlas Ofte Water-Waereld (1660), which was only the second nautical atlas of the world published in the Netherlands. It was a work that was continually enlarged and improved.